Panesar has to be picked alongside Swann, Broad, Anderson and Tremlett

A lot has happened since England last played a Test match. Regimes have fallen, cricketers have been incarcerated, David Warner and Vernon Philander have taken to Test cricket like ducks to water and man has finally landed on the moon.

Monty Panesar has to find a place in the eleven © Getty Images

By David Green

A lot has happened since England last played a Test match. Regimes have fallen, cricketers have been incarcerated, David Warner and Vernon Philander have taken to Test cricket like ducks to water and man has finally landed on the moon.

Ok we made the last one up, but it has been a long time – 148 days to be precise – since England wrapped up a 4-0 series against India at The Oval. It was a fitting end to a perfect year that saw England replace the vanquished Indians at the top of the Test rankings and win six out of its eight (the other two being rain affected draws) Tests – four by an innings.

The year 2012 is likely to be both busier – with 15 Tests in all – and tougher given that England face tough assignments in Sri Lanka and India in the subcontinental conditions that have proved to be their Achilles heel in the recent past. But first up is an intriguing clash with a rejuvenated Pakistan in similar conditions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

One school of thought is that England should stick to the six specialist batsmen, three seamer and one spinner policy that has served them so well in their climb to the top of the pile. But will this lead to success on the flat, slow and entirely different conditions that await them in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sri Lanka and India?

We think not and believe that England should be bold rather than defensive and trust that Matt Prior is a more than competent enough batsman at six on pitches that will strongly favour the batsmen.

True, it would be better if Tim Bresnan was fit to add ballast at No 7, but Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann both know which end of the bat to hold and in benign conditions, should be equipped to perform well enough at No 7 and No 8 if they apply themselves.

In any case, if England are to take 20 wickets on pitches where there has been only one positive result – four draws out of five so far – since Pakistan made the UAE its temporary home, then Monty Panesar, in form after an eight-wicket haul in the warm-up last week, simply has to be picked alongside Swann and three seamers – Broad, James Anderson and Chris Tremlett, with Eoin Morgan missing out.

If England do decide to be positive one would expect them to have enough to take 20 wickets in at least one of the three Tests to win the series, but it will be far from easy not just due to the alien conditions but also because Misbah-ul-Haq has made Pakistan a resilient side that will be extremely tough to beat.

Whatever the outcome the return of the No 1 Test side after such a long sabbatical certainly whets the appetite.

(David Green is the brain behind the irreverent The Reverse Sweep blog and also writes for a number of cricket publications and sites such as World Cricket Watch. You can follow him on Twitter also@TheReverseSweep. David was a decent schoolboy and club cricketer (and scored his maiden 100 the same week that Sachin Tendulkar scored his first Test ton) but not good enough to fulfill his childhood dream of emulating Douglas Jardine by winning the Ashes in Australia and annoying the locals into the bargain. He now lives with his wife and two young children in the South of France and will one day write the definitive biography of Hedley Verity)